


Spark the Flame

by WingedBeastie



Category: Destiny (Video Games), Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Crossover, F/M, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:14:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23514505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WingedBeastie/pseuds/WingedBeastie
Summary: The folks  say she shouldn’t remember.  She doesn’t bother explaining  that for the most part, she doesn’t.All she remembers is light and nothingness, fragments of names and features in faces that should be remembered.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Spark the Flame

**Author's Note:**

> I was prompted by a friend and this is what popped out. There’s likely going to be more of this

Waking up in a broken world is nothing new, but this one feels so wildly unfamiliar. For the first few days, she doesn’t speak. It’s hard to summon up the desire to when she sees the moon hovering so low in the sky. Besides, ‘Guardian’ is so close to ‘Shepard’ there’s no point in correcting anyone. 

‘Guardian’ as a title tastes bad on her tongue, almost as bad as ‘Specter’ though she can’t explain why. 

Still she reports to the Vanguard, snapping a sharp salute to the two of them. There’s talk of a third, but she’s never seen them - which is a shame. She’s always been fond with running with three and she senses there’s something unbalanced between the Commander and the Spymaster.

True to form, she irritates Zavala within moments of speaking to him. ‘You sound like my CO’ she grouses in response to his bitching and the Asa—Awoken can’t help but look like he swallowed a tack.

Rumors fly around the Tower, burning ears like wildfire. People say it’s strange, the way she guards the things they found her with so jealously; The dogtag in her boot, the strange looking pistol and some kind of computer. She paints a stripe down the right arm of every set of armor she gets. ‘Doesn’t look right without it.’

They say that her memory is the reason why her Light is so dim and why her Ghost is so quiet.

The folks say she shouldn’t remember. She doesn’t bother explaining that for the most part, she doesn’t.

All she remembers is light and nothingness, fragments of names and features in faces that should be remembered. 

Remembered they are in the fireteam that forms around her, mostly coincidentally. 

She comes across an Awoken woman in white, pink and gray armor nearly glowing from the splattering of Vex blood. Despite nearly being overwhelmed, the Titan persists wielding a shotgun with bloodthirsty effectiveness. Shepard dives in and once the carnage ends, ‘Olivia’ introduces herself with a strong handshake and the two handle the rest of Asher’s irritating tasks together.

Three days later, in the midst of clearing a Lost Sector - Shepard and Olivia both notice the shot that wizzes between their heads and takes out an approaching Vandal. The den is quick work thanks to the well placed shots of the friendly sniper, though more than once the women swear corrosively at a few hits made well within their personal bubbles. 

At the exit an Exo, dressed sleek in shadowy black and blue peers curiously at both them. ‘I’d like my cut, please.’ he says barely turning to look at either of them. Olivia nearly knocks him out but Shepard can’t stop laughing when she tells him to meet them at the ramen place on the Tower. Archer-28 tells the waiter to put the two ladies he’s eating with on his bill.‘Hunters...’ Olivia grumbles in between drinks as she stares holes into Archer’s faceplate.

It is because of these two Shepard finds herself, the eye of the storm as she stares down an Ogre for the first time. Olivia is still being stitched up by her Ghost and Archer is busy keeping the Thralls and Acolytes from overwhelming their position. Shepard drops her rifle and jumps, clenching her fist. 

She is no stranger to pressure, to staring death in the face and as the flame ignites in her palm, Olivia and Archer suddenly understand that their gossipy fellow Guardians are fools.

Shepard burns for those seconds that feel like an eternity. Like always, she is a Light in the Darkness and like always, she never notices what burns away when she immolates her enemies.

Her crew does, though. Solar light floods her; not only in the aura that always seems to surround warlocks in these moments — but her veins and scars and eyes illuminate, burning the very air around them. They hear her scream tear through the air as she throws sword after sword. Liv and Archie have never seen anything like the thin wisps of white smoke or the way her Light burns blue at the edges.

Shepard knows her fireteam, that they’ve seen something but for once, Olivia and Archer are left speechless. And they move on; they break taboo and ask about her past, ask about her strange old habits. But they never talk about the day that Shepard found her Light.

They never ask why she looked so wrathful. 

They never ask why she cried.


End file.
